Thursday, February 13, 2014

Australian museum accepts having bought a stolen idol from India: Part I

It
appears that the rope given to ill famous Indian crook, Subhash
Chandra Kapoor, now in a Chennai jail, is getting shorter and shorter
as the investigations reach deeper and deeper into Kapoor's criminal
empire. Kapoor has been the mastermind behind many thefts of ancient
idols and bronzes from temples of India. From the information
collected from informants and email correspondences between Kapoor
and his co-conspirators and gallery owners, it is becoming
increasingly clear that many museums across the world, who accepted
false provenance certificates produced by Kapoor and have hitherto
kept claiming that they followed due diligence before purchasing them
and their transactions were legitimate are finding that they have
been cheated by Kapoor. This list of museums now includes National
Gallery of Australia, Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore,
Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, USA and the Art Gallery
of New South Wales, Australia.

Having
realised that Kapoor has outright cheated them, The National Gallery
of Australia (NGA)in Canberra, which bought a 1,000-year-old bronze
Nataraja for US $5 million from Kapoor, has filed a lawsuit against
him in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on February 5,
2014. The NGA is now accusing Kapoor of fraudulently inducing the
museum to buy the idol by making misrepresentations and false
assurances about its ownership. It has asked for an amount not less
than US $ 5 million from Kapoor as damages for fraud and breach of
contract. It also wants to recover additional amounts with interest
for legal fees and other expenses.

It all
started in 2006, when Kapoor had approached the NGA and had offered
the idol for potential acquisition by the museum. Kapoor had told
the NGA that a Sudanese diplomat, based in Delhi between 1968 and
1971, bought the idol from a fine art shop in Red Fort Arcade. The
diplomat later took the idol along with him when he left Delhi. After
his death, his wife sold it to Kapoor's 'Art of Past Gallery,' owned
by Kapoor, in 2004. Kapoor also provided documents to support his
ownership of the idol. He also gave a letter of guarantee, claiming
that his gallery was the sole owner of the idol and knew of no
adverse claim or notice relevant to the ownership of the item. The
NGA says that it did due diligence to ensure that the idol was not a
stolen one. Since it did not find anything wrong in the papers, it
went ahead with the purchase. In 2008, the NGA paid US $5 million in
two installments to Kapoor and acquired the idol.

Between
2006 and 2008, about 18 ancient bronze sculptures were stolen by
Kapoor from temples in Tamil Nadu state of India. Among them were two
of Nataraja and two of goddess Uma, all shipped to the U.S. The idol
purchased by NGA is believed to have been stolen was stolen from the
Sripuranthan temple in Tamil Nadu state.

U.S.
investigators tracking illicit antiquities had their first major
break in 2007, when they arrested a person in California for Customs
violations. This person eventually agreed to co-operate with the
investigators and became informant #1. He contacted Kapoor on several
occasions seeking information about ‘illicit cultural property. The
U.S. authorities also roped in as an informant #2, an employee of
Kapoor’s ‘Art of the Past’ gallery. In December 2008, the
gallery offered to sell ‘Informant #1’ a stolen 12th century
Nataraja bronze, valued at $3.5 million. Later in 2011, Kapoor
personally offered to sell the same idol, along with it another
Nataraja sculpture for $5 million. The informant recorded the
conversation. During this time, as investigators later found in
e-mails they reviewed, Kapoor put up for sale two Uma idols valued at
$6 million. US investigators raided Kapoor's premises in January
2012, when large number of shipping documents were found, revealing
the complex method by which the idols were illegally sent from India
via Hong Kong. However the actual idols were still not traceable.

Kapoor
was nabbed in Germany and was brought to India on July 13 2012 and
is in a judicial custody in Tamil Nadu at present. Since Kapoor’s
arrest new evidences have emerged. In December 2013, the Manhattan
District Attorney filed a criminal complaint in the Supreme Court of
New York, against Kapoor and Aaron Freedman, long-time manager of
Kapoor’s gallery, for arranging the sale and transport of the
Nataraja idol to the NGA, using false documents. Since then, Aron
Freedman has pleaded guilty.

With
Kapoor in prison in India and his premises raided last year, one
Selina Mohamad, who was keeping the four idols as directed by Kapoor,
got extremely worried. She asked Sushma Sareen, Subhash Chandra
Kapoor’s 60 year old sister, to remove the idols from her
apartment. According to US investigators, Sushma Sareen moved them,
clearly showing her hand in the crime. The U.S. authorities also
allege that she resumed the business after her brother's arrest and
continued the operations. In last few years, she appears to have
travelled to India, has assisted with wire transfers and contacted
antiquities smugglers, who had prior dealings with her brother,
proving her full participation in the criminal acts. US investigators
have now filed a complaint in the Criminal Court of the City of New
York that these four sculptures, valued at $14.5 million, were in the
possession of Sushma Sareen, sister of Subhash Chandra Kapoor. Ms.
Sushma Sareen was arrested and now is on bail.

Kapoor
also appears to have cheated another Australian museum. This time,
The Art Gallery of New South Wales. The museum was offered the same
story of a Sudanese diplomat, based in Delhi between 1968 and 1971,
who had bought in this instance a statue of the Hindu idol 'Shiva'
but from a different shop in Delhi. The museum fell for the
provenance documents provided by Kapoor and believing them to be true
bought the idol for an undisclosed amount. The museum, however has
not taken any legal steps as yet.